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Farah Ashraf Kamal on Muck Rack

Farah Ashraf Kamal

United States
Covers:  Investigative Reporting on U.S. Financial Institutions, Regulation & Capital Markets
Doesn't Cover: Crypto, NFTs, Web3 or retail-trading

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Farah Ashraf Kamal’s Biography

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Farah Ashraf Kamal is a capital markets strategist and investigative financial analyst focused on U.S. financial institutions, regulatory disclosures, and the mechanics of the trade lifecycle. She covers the intersection of banking, credit unions, broker-dealers, and investment advisers with a particular emphasis on how governance, vendor relationships, and regulatory filings reveal strategic, operational, and cultural realities inside financial institutions.

Kamal is the founder of Finleet, a …

Farah Ashraf Kamal’s Journalist Portfolio

The $8.5 Million CEO Who Got Beat by Someone Earning Half as Much

The $8.5 Million CEO Who Got Beat by Someone Earning Half as Much

Analysis of 664 state-chartered credit unions reveals the highest-paid CEO delivered 31% growth while another…

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Masterworks' $161M Reg A Ghost Fleet: 100+ SEC Entities, Zero Vault Sales

Masterworks' $161M Reg A Ghost Fleet: 100+ SEC Entities, Zero Vault Sales

SEC filing analysis reveals Masterworks has qualified over 100 Regulation A offerings totaling hundreds of mi…

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How Angel Studios Raised $150M+ With Zero Sales Commissions: A Distribution-First Case Study

How Angel Studios Raised $150M+ With Zero Sales Commissions: A Distribution-First Case Study

From VidAngel's $10M Reg A in 2016 to $71.7M in 2025 at 0.1% cost, Angel Studios built the playbook for distr…

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The True Cost of Reg A: 13.4% of Every Dollar Raised Goes to Service Providers

The True Cost of Reg A: 13.4% of Every Dollar Raised Goes to Service Providers

Analysis of 177 Regulation A offerings in 2025 reveals companies raised just 15.4% of planned amounts while p…

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The $371 Million Betrayal: Inside America's Credit Union Enforcement Crisis

The $371 Million Betrayal: Inside America's Credit Union Enforcement Crisis

A Finleet data investigation reveals 1,422 credit union employees banned over 15 years. Embezzlement accounts…

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65 Years of U.S. Commercial Banking: 10 Charts That Explain the Great Consolidation

65 Years of U.S. Commercial Banking: 10 Charts That Explain the Great Consolidation

A Finleet analysis of 2.5 million quarterly Call Reports reveals how America's commercial banking industry tr…

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Articles

65 Years of U.S. Commercial Banking: 10 Charts That Explain the Great Consolidation

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By Farah Ashraf Kamal
| finleet.com
For more than a century, U.S. commercial banks have filed standardized financial reports with federal regulators. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York compiled these "Call Reports" into a research dataset covering 1959 to 2025: 2,544,226 quarterly observations from 24,716 unique FDIC-insured commercial banks. Finleet analyzed this dataset to quantify 65 years of structural transformation in American commercial banking.
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The $8.5 Million CEO Who Got Beat by Someone Earning Half as Much

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By Farah Ashraf Kamal
Gary Rodrigues earned $8.58 million leading Star One Credit Union in 2023. Over the past decade, his institution grew assets by 31 percent. Brett Martinez earned $3.18 million at Redwood Credit Union—less than half of Rodrigues—yet delivered 269 percent asset growth, the highest in our 664-institution analysis. The paradox captures something essential about executive compensation in the credit union industry: more money doesn't automatically buy more growth.
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The $371 Million Betrayal: Inside America's Credit Union Enforcement Crisis

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By Farah Ashraf Kamal
The numbers tell a story of systematic betrayal. Over the past fifteen years, the National Credit Union Administration has permanently banned 1,422 individuals from the financial industry, employees and officers who violated the trust of the member-owned institutions they served. These weren't faceless corporate executives at distant megabanks.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

My first role in media was high school morning announcements. I’d casually report the DJIA close before reminding everyone about pizza day.

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes, I had an electronic typewriter as a teenager which I found so much faster to put down my thoughts than using a computer.

How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?

I use a data-driven approach so would always fact check using regulatory data so would love the sources of the data presented when pitched.